Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- New York City is looking for a
university partner to help create a private applied-science
research facility to attract engineers from around the world.

The offer, part of a long-term economic strategy, promises
an unspecified capital investment and possibly a city-owned site
such as Governors Island to attract technology business and
create jobs, officials said today.

“There’s one major academic area in which New York City is
strong, but doesn’t dominate -- applied sciences and
engineering,” said Deputy Mayor Robert Steel in remarks to
business leaders at Google Inc.’s Manhattan offices.

While the city’s economy has rebounded from the recession
better than most of the U.S., unemployment in October stood at
9.2 percent, below the national rate of 9.6 percent. Tax revenue
hasn’t kept up with expenses, opening a projected $4.5 billion
budget deficit for the year starting July 1.

“Whether you look at population growth or tourism, more
and more people want to visit and live in New York City and that
is a huge source of competitive strength as we plan for our
future,” said Steel, who’s served as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s
deputy for economic development since June.

Steel, 59, the former chief executive officer of Wachovia
Corp., was undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury Department in the
administration of President George W. Bush. He was vice chairman
of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 2002 to 2004.

‘Top Caliber’

The city is inviting proposals aimed at finding “a top
caliber academic institution” to which the city would “make a
significant capital contribution,” including possibly offering
municipal land, Steel said. The search extends as far as
Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Steel said.

In addition to Governors Island, a former military base in
New York Harbor, potential sites include the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
Roosevelt Island in the East River, and the Farm Colony on
Staten Island, he said.

“We’ve identified possible sites that could make for an
excellent location for the school, but we’re also open to
hearing about locations we haven’t thought of,” Steel said.

Including city land, the city’s capital contribution may
top $100 million, said David Lombino, spokesman for the city
Economic Development Corp.

The announcement added to the mayor’s pledge on Dec. 8 to
add 10 job training centers to the nine already operating, with
a goal of 40,000 placements in 2012 -- 10,000 more than this
year. The city has plans to add two business incubators next
year, adding to the six created to help entrepreneurs in such
fields as fashion and Web design get off the ground.

The Next Google

“No one knows for sure where the next big thing will come
from,” Steel said, pointing to Google, which didn’t exist 15
years ago. The Mountain View, California-based company, owner of
the world’s largest Web-search engine, has a market value of
about $189 billion.

“Our job is not to find the next thing, it’s to create the
conditions to make sure it happens right here in New York
City,” Steel said.

The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News
parent Bloomberg LP.